#if anyone saw me have a mini breakdown on my other blog about SGD last week 1) no you didn't but 2) it was because of this fic

[thebansacredbanned]

HI @omgpurplefattie so this one I was in the middle of trying to write something else and my brain went "hey, what if Qi Mushan never found Li Xiangyi and Shan Gudao? What then?" to which the obvious answer is 'they end up in a brothel because SGD needs to earn money to buy medicine and then LXY starts working also. and then I wrote 3k in one evening but it keeps developing and I have a timeline spanning c20 years and its all very tragic

wip tag game here

snippet under the cut!

Fifteen Years Ago

Gudao-ge had tried to hide exactly what he did to earn their keep, but Xiangyi was not stupid. And now, after five years of living in a brothel, he was not stupid enough to not see the way guests eyes followed him around the room. Or the way the Madam’s eyes watched to see where they were looking.

He’s outside the door of her office now, listening in as she talks to Gudao-ge in hushed tones. Mei-jiejie raises an eyebrow at him as she walks past, but he puts a finger to his lips and flaps a hand at her.

“Your brother is going to have to start earning his keep.”

“Xiangyi is earning his keep. Doesn’t he clean this place from top to bottom every day?”

“I can hire any brat off the street to do that. He is too old to be doing that sort of work here. He’s distracting customers. Either he goes or he works.”

“If you try to make him do either of those things, I’ll leave with him.”

“I own you, Gudao.”

“I’ll do it!” Xiangyi pushes through the door, almost falling, as he speaks. He has been glad to have a roof over his head and food on his plate these five years. He does owe the Madam a lot. And besides, the sort of things that Gudao-ge does really don’t seem that awful.

But Gudao looks thunderous. Furious. “Xiangyi, no –”

“Perfect!” The Madam interrupts with a big smile. “You can start tomorrow night. Let me take you to some of the girls, they’ll be able to get you the things you’ll need.”

Xiangyi looks over his shoulder as she all-but drags him out of the room. Gudao-ge’s stares back at him, twisting the jade token between his fingers.